-Digital advertising is broken. It is a market filled with middlemen and fraudsters, hurting users, publishers and advertisers. The Basic Attention Token (BAT) was developed to address this. BAT, an ERC20 token built on top of Ethereum, will be the token of utility in a new, decentralized, open source and efficient blockchain-based digital advertising platform.

-In the ecosystem, advertisers will give publishers BATs based on the measured attention of users. Users will also receive some BATs for participating. They can donate them back to publishers or use them on the platform. This transparent system keeps user data private while delivering fewer but more relevant ads. Publishers experience less fraud while increasing their percentage of rewards. And advertisers get better reporting and performance.

-The first part of the solution, the Brave browser, is already operational. Brave is a fast, open source, privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers, and contains a ledger system that anonymously measures user attention aggregate to accurately reward publishers.

-From the creator of JavaScript and the co-founder of Mozilla and Firefox, with a solid team – funded by Founders Fund, Foundation Capital, Propel Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, DCG, Danhua Capital, and Huiyin Blockchain Venture among others.

Stage 1: Brave Browser

Brave is a fast, open source, privacy-focused browser that blocks malvertisements, trackers, and contains a ledger system that anonymously captures user attention to accurately reward publishers.

Stage 2: Basic Attention Token

The Basic Attention Token can be used to obtain a variety of advertising and attention-based services on the Brave platform, as it is exchanged between publishers, advertisers, and users.

The token’s utility is derived from — or denominated by — user attention.

Attention is really just focused mental engagement — on an advertisement, in this case.

Stages 1 + 2 = A New Deal

The Brave browser knows where users spend their time, making it the perfect tool to calculate and reward publishers with BATs. This service creates a transparent and efficient Blockchain-based digital advertising market. Publishers receive more revenue because middlemen and fraud are reduced. Users, who opt in, receive fewer but better targeted ads that are less prone to malware. And advertisers get better data on their spending.

Attention is measured as users view ads and content in the browser’s active tab in real time. The Attention Value for the ad will be calculated based on incremental duration and pixels in view in proportion to relevant content, prior to any direct engagement with the ad. We will define further anonymous cost-per-action models as the system develops.

Ads are then anonymously matched with customer interests using local machine learning algorithms. This means less irrelevant ads.

Brave will work with publishers and advertisers to establish best practices for judging user attention. One potential metric: the number of total views of advertising content for a certain number of seconds. Or, points assigned on the length of a view.

Who Gets What?

Users viewing ads will be rewarded with BATs. BATs can be used for premium content or services on the Brave platform.

Publishers will, as part of this service, receive the lion’s share of the total ad revenue. We anticipate that users will also donate back some tokens to publishers, further increasing their revenue.

More Privacy, Less Fraud

Users’ privacy is protected through the use of the ANONIZE algorithm. And ad fraud will be prevented or reduced by publication of source code and cryptographically secure transactions.

Parts of the Solution are Code Complete

Much of the infrastructure required to deploy BAT at the back end is “code complete,” meaning it’s currently in place and being used to distribute donations to publishers based on customer attention. Use it today in the Brave Browser for WIndows, Mac OS and Linux.